My Life-Changing Internship Experience in Mapan

Life at Mapan
Sep 4, 2018 · 4 min read

At first, I have never thought that I pursue an interest to intern at a Startup. I am an economics student, and government-related fields or corporate worlds have been what I am seeking for. Nevertheless, every single thing I had as an intern at Mapan was a life-changing experience for me. It really taught me a fresh perspective about Startup and its role for Indonesia.

The first time I knew about Mapan, I was deeply curious about its business model. Mapan started to operate its product called Arisan Mapan, a collective saving system for the low-communities in 2015, and now acquired almost 2 million members in 2018. Imagine how amazed I am by its extraordinary achievement, on how much it helped the underprivileged society in Indonesia. Moreover, Mapan joined forces with GO-JEK to work together in improving millions of lives. With the company’s remarkable aim to empower Indonesia’s low-communities through financial inclusion, I am starting to wonder that maybe Startup like Mapan truly is something that our country needs. We are constantly reminded who are we working for, how much impacts that we may contribute through our work.

In Mapan, I am working under the demand planning (forecasting) division of Supply Chain. The team that I am involved with has a role to analyze the number of products ordered by our millions of members, and help with the execution of its delivery. To work at a Supply Chain related field really is a challenging job. Every day we are doing our best to fulfil the satisfaction of our members, which in this case are low-income families who are in need. The company’s core principle of #MembersFirst truly is sinking within me. Every time I take part, I know that I am helping our members to receive the product they have been waiting for. Imagine if there is a middle-aged housewife who joins Arisan Mapan and has been paying monthly instalment to buy a kitchen tool for her newly-formed bakery. Or maybe, a mom who join Arisan Mapan to buy a backpack for her daughter’s birthday present. We may not know all the reasons, but as a part of this company, we sincerely are helping our members to achieve their aim.

Besides Supply Chain, I also learned the role of other divisions at Mapan, and I believe that every single one of them has a direct impact towards the well-being of our members. To name a few, UX team helped to create an easy to use application, especially knowing that our members have a very minimum knowledge about technology. Moreover, the Marketing team also helped to educate our members on how to benefit from our program. Meanwhile, the HR team helped to find the best people that can help to improve Mapan in the future. Based on my personal role for Mapan, I was assigned to work on revamping the company’s demand planning system. As most of the work that I do best or familiar with is research and excel related, I created a well-crafted preorder suggestion system to improve the accuracy of our team’s execution. The system will later benefit us by avoiding late deliveries and out of stock, which will benefit our members to receive the product on time and as expected. This is how I contribute to improving the well-being of our members, as well as Indonesia’s low-income families.

Last but not least, I also had an amazing opportunity to join the logistics operation for a whole day. It was part of Mapan’s learning program for new employees. At first, I came to one of Mapan’s stock point at Jakarta Selatan to see how the daily delivery operation works. Then, I came with Mapan’s courier to deliver a particular product to one of our members’ house located in Bintaro area. Her name is Ibu Erni, she has been joining our program for 5 months ever since March this year. She is leading around 5 Arisan groups and constantly collecting instalment every single day.

I was invited to her modest house, she made tea for us and we had a little chit-chat. She was telling her joy and sorrows in joining Arisan Mapan, and there we were listening to it. I am happy that our program has helped her to acquire additional income along with allowing her to learn, however, she still may have many complaints. Regardless, I am also happy that she was sharing her unsatisfying experiences because I believe that it is what Mapan team is driven to, we are learning from our members’ feedback and trying our best to fix that.

All in all, interning at Mapan really is a life-changing experience for me. It gave me the chance to work, learn, and giving back to the society. Here at Mapan, we #WorkforImpact and I surely is satisfied with everything I had during my time at Mapan. I am really hoping that in the future I may work across Mapan team again, and help to contribute to the well-being of Indonesia’s underprivileged society. Let us #WorkforImpact and join the #LifeatMapan.


This article was written by Salsabila Bratandari Nazief.

Care to join us in an impactful internship experience? Do send us your latest resume to recruitment@ruma.co.id and feel the impact yourself!

Life at Mapan

A purposeful workplace with a mission to increase access, dignity and income for low-income communities through technology.

Life at Mapan

Written by

Life at Mapan

A purposeful workplace with a mission to increase access, dignity and income for low-income communities through technology.

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